1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an air control module unit for portable pneumatic tools, more particularly, to an air control module unit that actuates a valve stem inside an air inlet block of an air inlet module by an air bleed valve in an air actuation module.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art “Portable Pneumatic Tool assembled with Module Units” U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,356, with the concept to divide the portable pneumatic tools in basically four modules, i.e. air inlet module, air actuation module, air directional module, and air operation module, which are connected by air hoses in between, then, installed inside the clam shell housings, as shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13. The housings can be two symmetric half shells (clam shell) or several partially cutaway shells made of sheet metal forming or composite material injection molding. It has the benefits to build the portable pneumatic tools economically and pursues to apply this invention to build the tool more flexible and ergonomic.
As shown in FIG. 14, which is a sectional drawing showing an air actuation valve of the prior art, and the air actuation valve 3 consists of a valve block 31, a valve stem 32, two hose connectors 33, one spring 35, and one plug screw 34, in order to allow sufficient flow of compressed air passing by and enter the operation module, the prior art cannot be minimized to ideal compact dimensions to meet the satisfaction and comfort of the hand held housing design.
However, while applying the up-mentioned prior art to build portable pneumatic tools, especially pistol grip type of air tools, the inventor has found the drawbacks thereof.
Since the air passage of the prior art should be big enough to allow sufficient compressed air go through while keeping the hand held portion of the housing to fit the palm grip comfortably, but all efforts have been done in vain while installing the air actuation module into the hand grip portion of the half shell housings, the inventor has then developed and invented the present new air control module unit to actuate the valve stem inside the air inlet block of the air inlet module remotely by air bleed valve in the air actuation module. The air actuation module is functioned by air bleed valve and correspondent air bleed hose which are all in miniature dimensions. The air inlet module and air actuation module are separated and connected remotely by air hoses in between. This mechanism will make the hand held portion retains only the air actuation module, air bleed hose, and air hoses for leading the compressed air to the operation module and easy to make the half shell housings fit the palm grip ergonomically. It will not only provide the great interchangeability of the air control module units for most of portable pneumatic tools to reduce production and inventory cost and making tool service and assembly faster and easier, but also allow more versatility for assembling with additional electro-mechanical devices and sensors with digital displays, etc. for various requirements of functions and applications.
Therefore the inventor has developed the new structure of the air control module unit to solve the problems mentioned above and will be described as follows.